Latest News and Efforts from the Government Accountability ProjectUS Supreme Court Clears Way for Hanford Whistleblower Trial

14 Mar 2003 23:45:00 -0000

US Supreme Court Clears Way for Hanford Whistleblower Trial

Tom Carpenter
Press Release on Supreme Court decision

Washington, D.C.: The United States Supreme Court rebuffed an appeal on March 10, 2003 by the Fluor Hanford Company in the case of eleven Hanford pipe-fitters who were terminated or harassed for whistleblowing, paving the way for the case to go to trial in early June. 
 
 The pipefitters who worked at the high-level nuclear waste tank farms at the Hanford Nuclear Site in southeastern Washington, allege wrongful discharge for their terminations after they raised safety and health concerns with their employer. Their case will now go to trial in Kennewick, Washington on June 9, 2003.
 
 The Supreme Court’s ruling is the consecutive third setback for the Hanford contractor, Flour Hanford, which lost its appeal in Washington State Appeals Court and before the Washington State Supreme Court. Fluor is using over $1.5 million of taxpayer dollars so far, (according to information obtained by GAP through the Freedom of Information Act) to litigate against the Hanford workers.
 
 "Now the game-playing and delay is over, and Fluor will finally have to address its retaliatory behavior in open court," said Tom Carpenter, Director of the West Coast Office of the non-profit Government Accountability Project, which represents the pipefitters. “We are lucky that workers are willing to challenge dangerous and expedient decisions. We have made some progress in the last 10 years, but the culture that exposes and punishes workers continues. The very idea that taxpayers are saddled with the expenses of defending bad management is outrageous.”
 
 The case started in 1997, when seven pipefitters were terminated after refusing to install a valve that was not rated to handle adequate pressure in a pipeline that was designed to carry high-level nuclear waste. 
 
 The whistleblower/plaintiffs are Pete Nicacio, Randy Walli, Clyde Killen, Shane O'Leary, James Stull, Ray Richardson, Don Hodgin, Jesse Jaymes, Scott Brundridge, Chuck Cable and Dave Faubion. The defendants in the case are Fluor Federal Services and Fluor Hanford, Inc..
 
 The trial is expected to last three weeks, involve dozens of witnesses, and spotlight the stories of workers who attempt to raise environmental, safety and health concerns at Hanford. The whistleblowers are represented by attorney Jack Sheridan, a private attorney in Seattle, in conjunction with the Government Accountability Project. 
 
 
 FACT SHEET
 
 •	Since 1990, work at the Hanford Nuclear Site, a former nuclear weapons production facility located in southeastern Washington state, has been focused on cleaning up the highly contaminated toxic and radioactive nuclear waste that was produced over the 45 years that the facility was in operation.
 
 •	The Hanford Nuclear site covers 560 square miles. It is owned by the Department of Energy and operated by several private contractors. Fluor Federal Services (Fluor) is a principal contractor at Hanford.
 
 •	More than 56 million gallons of high-level nuclear and non-nuclear toxic waste are stored at Hanford in 177 underground storage tanks. All of these tanks have exceeded their projected stable lifetime by at least twenty years and a third of them are confirmed to have failed, and have leaked into the ground and groundwater beneath the tanks.
 
 •	The plaintiffs -- experienced pipefitters – who have worked at Hanford for many years and were only laid off after they raised health and safety issues or supported those who had. 
 
 •	The workers’ union contract required that the least skilled, productive and qualified were to be laid-off first. The seven pipefitters who were fired fit none of these criteria.
 
 •	The Department of Energy, the government agency that owns the Hanford Site, continues to reimburse its contractor's legal fees for cases associated with the Site. Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the DOE has reimbursed over $1.5 million to Fluor in the pipefitter case. The reimbursements are clearly a contradiction of DOE's policy of "Zero Tolerance for Reprisal Against Whistleblowers."
 
 •	The Government Accountability Project is a non-profit watchdog organization that provides legal services to whistleblowers. It has represented dozens of other Hanford whistleblowers since 1988.

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US Supreme Court Clears Way for Hanford Whistleblower Trial

Tom Carpenter
Press Release on Supreme Court decision

Washington, D.C.: The United States Supreme Court rebuffed an appeal on March 10, 2003 by the Fluor Hanford Company in the case of eleven Hanford pipe-fitters who were terminated or harassed for whistleblowing, paving the way for the case to go to trial in early June. 
 
 The pipefitters who worked at the high-level nuclear waste tank farms at the Hanford Nuclear Site in southeastern Washington, allege wrongful discharge for their terminations after they raised safety and health concerns with their employer. Their case will now go to trial in Kennewick, Washington on June 9, 2003.
 
 The Supreme Court’s ruling is the consecutive third setback for the Hanford contractor, Flour Hanford, which lost its appeal in Washington State Appeals Court and before the Washington State Supreme Court. Fluor is using over $1.5 million of taxpayer dollars so far, (according to information obtained by GAP through the Freedom of Information Act) to litigate against the Hanford workers.
 
 "Now the game-playing and delay is over, and Fluor will finally have to address its retaliatory behavior in open court," said Tom Carpenter, Director of the West Coast Office of the non-profit Government Accountability Project, which represents the pipefitters. “We are lucky that workers are willing to challenge dangerous and expedient decisions. We have made some progress in the last 10 years, but the culture that exposes and punishes workers continues. The very idea that taxpayers are saddled with the expenses of defending bad management is outrageous.”
 
 The case started in 1997, when seven pipefitters were terminated after refusing to install a valve that was not rated to handle adequate pressure in a pipeline that was designed to carry high-level nuclear waste. 
 
 The whistleblower/plaintiffs are Pete Nicacio, Randy Walli, Clyde Killen, Shane O'Leary, James Stull, Ray Richardson, Don Hodgin, Jesse Jaymes, Scott Brundridge, Chuck Cable and Dave Faubion. The defendants in the case are Fluor Federal Services and Fluor Hanford, Inc..
 
 The trial is expected to last three weeks, involve dozens of witnesses, and spotlight the stories of workers who attempt to raise environmental, safety and health concerns at Hanford. The whistleblowers are represented by attorney Jack Sheridan, a private attorney in Seattle, in conjunction with the Government Accountability Project. 
 
 
 FACT SHEET
 
 •	Since 1990, work at the Hanford Nuclear Site, a former nuclear weapons production facility located in southeastern Washington state, has been focused on cleaning up the highly contaminated toxic and radioactive nuclear waste that was produced over the 45 years that the facility was in operation.
 
 •	The Hanford Nuclear site covers 560 square miles. It is owned by the Department of Energy and operated by several private contractors. Fluor Federal Services (Fluor) is a principal contractor at Hanford.
 
 •	More than 56 million gallons of high-level nuclear and non-nuclear toxic waste are stored at Hanford in 177 underground storage tanks. All of these tanks have exceeded their projected stable lifetime by at least twenty years and a third of them are confirmed to have failed, and have leaked into the ground and groundwater beneath the tanks.
 
 •	The plaintiffs -- experienced pipefitters – who have worked at Hanford for many years and were only laid off after they raised health and safety issues or supported those who had. 
 
 •	The workers’ union contract required that the least skilled, productive and qualified were to be laid-off first. The seven pipefitters who were fired fit none of these criteria.
 
 •	The Department of Energy, the government agency that owns the Hanford Site, continues to reimburse its contractor's legal fees for cases associated with the Site. Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the DOE has reimbursed over $1.5 million to Fluor in the pipefitter case. The reimbursements are clearly a contradiction of DOE's policy of "Zero Tolerance for Reprisal Against Whistleblowers."
 
 •	The Government Accountability Project is a non-profit watchdog organization that provides legal services to whistleblowers. It has represented dozens of other Hanford whistleblowers since 1988.

If you no longer wish to receive these e-mails, please send an email with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line. To one of the addresses below.
If you are recieving these emails from <a href=mailto:gap-general-list-request@whistleblower.org>gap-general-list@whistleblower.org</a>
If you are recieving these emails from <a href=mailto:gap-media-request@whistleblower.org>gap-media-list@whistleblower.org</a>